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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What date lives forever in infamy for Vonnegut?
(a) O'Hare's death.
(b) the day of his mother's suicide.
(c) The day he is first married.
(d) His sister's birth.

2. What do Vonnegut's grown children jointly own?
(a) A publishing house.
(b) A condominium in New York City.
(c) Their childhood home.
(d) The lake house.

3. In which art form does Father show promise before the Great Depression?
(a) Painting.
(b) Pottery.
(c) Sculpture.
(d) Printmaking.

4. What does Vonnegut believe about professional artists' opinions on vocal third parties, such as critics, curators, and collectors?
(a) They are happiest when they do not have to worry about other's opinions.
(b) They love to create work for collectors.
(c) They constantly ask for approval from critics, curators, and collectors.
(d) They like to receive criticism from third parties.

5. The Vonnegut family expects its family members to go out east to college. Where does the author's dad, Kurt Vonnegut Sr., go to college?
(a) Harvard.
(b) MIT.
(c) NYU.
(d) UCLA.

Short Answer Questions

1. Vonnegut references what Biblical story to his belief that people find life too hard and disappointing to act on repairing it?

2. Vonnegut uses examinations of history, literature, psychology and what else to move his story forward?

3. Why can Vonnegut not get married at an Episcopalian church?

4. Who buys the lake house but allows Vonnegut and his bride to honeymoon there?

5. Vonnegut is enthusiastic about Pollock's work, but what does he feel is missing from Pollock's paintings?

Short Essay Questions

1. How can you tell Vonnegut does not value medals and awards?

2. Why do the Vonneguts give themselves a Native American tribal name?

3. What makes Alice a lazy artist?

4. What examples does Vonnegut give to show that male bonding is important to men?

5. What does Hemingway share with Vonnegut?

6. What is one similarity and one difference between the author and Elie Wiesel?

7. A unicorn, it is said, will lay its head in a maiden's lap if she sits in a forest clearing. Why is Vonnegut's sister, Alice, the maiden to Father's unicorn?

8. A master's degree in anthropology has taught Vonnegut the "villains" are culture, society and history, not drugs. What proof does Vonnegut give of this belief?

9. What are two characteristics of Jackson Pollock's work?

10. Why does Vonnegut greatly admire anything Anonymous, for example, Alcoholics Anonymous?

(see the answer keys)

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